“Being a refugee is a challenge because I depend on my own and I have to provide for my basic needs. I don’t have electricity in my house, I used to study during the day and would have to use a small torch at night. To overcome all these challenges I close my eyes, I forget all my problems and focused on important things in order to achieve my goals. "

Dzaleka, 18 July 2016 - June 2016 was not only the month of
World Refugee Day commemorations, but also a memorable month in the life of the
Dzaleka Community Day Secondary School Form 4 students. On Friday 17th June
2016, 160 students, 100 boys and 60 girls, graduated from the Secondary School.

Everyone came to witness the graduation ceremony. The
audience that came to celebrate this most auspicious event in the lives of
these young people was made of family members - consisting of fathers, mothers,
brothers, and sisters of both refugee and host communities - along with
teachers, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Country Director, Mr. Rufino Seva,
Project Director for schools, Mr. Percy Chikwela, JRS-JC:HEM (Jesuit Commons
Higher Education at the Margins) Project Director, Mr. Joe Slaven, Pastoral
Care Project Director, Father David Masikini SJ and the Education Manager from
Dowa District, Mr. M.B.C. Mwale who was the guest of honour for the ceremony.

Students, like any other school day, wore their signature
black and white school uniforms, with a white paper-made hat. They performed
dances, performed educational plays, as well as poems in front of the audience.
On the behalf of all his classmates, Chiza Bernard, delivered a moving tribute
through a poem entitled, “Once Upon a Time” What follows is an excerpt from his
poem:

“[…] I saw men
shaping, creating, building sophisticated weapons of mass destruction and women
leaving their children to jeer,

the roaring war and
diseases taking advantage of the children….

Rickets, polio,
measles, anaemia, and all deformities, taking heed in every one’s heart and all
men, women, children all dreamed of once upon a time.

Past cannot be
present but present can be the past, where all that is destroyed can be made
again…..

we can all sing the
song of love, joy, peace, disregarding who we are, because all of us are human

Whether black, red,
white, biracial, but we all have the same heart;

whether we are in the
North, West, or East, but we all live in the same globe;

whether born in
Europe or South or Northern America, Australia, Africa, Asia, but we are all
born from the same person, woman.

Whether you are poor,
rich, intelligent, dumb, illiterate, or literate, but we all breathe the same
air

and all we need is
respect and heal the world and make it a better place for you and me and bring
back what was ‘Once Upon a Time’”

Furthermore, The Dzaleka Community Day Secondary School
(DZCDSS) Head Teacher/Principal, Oscar Tifere Banda, emphasised on the extreme power of
education in day-to-day life. In other words, Mr. Banda viewed education as the
most influential tool for character transformation, while urging students to
behave in the right way wherever they may find themselves in the community.

“I’m glad that the number [of students graduating today] is
very high. It has been a concern in Malawi, and most African countries, that
girls are not able to complete secondary education because of traditional
values.” said Rufino Seva, in his speech. To encourage the graduates, he gave
the example of his own educational experience, as he experienced difficulties
while attending school. “So education is a road to opportunities, privilege and
a better future. School provides you the right knowledge, skills, hard work and
with determination, it is going to help you and lead you to what you want to
become in your life.” he concluded.

On his side, the guest of honour, Mr. Mwale did not hold
back his words on the very day: “when the fruits are seen, it takes a long
period. You must know that the world
depends on you. From standard one to grade eight, and form one to form four,
there is a lot of skills and knowledge that you have gained so far. The
teachers have tried to emphasize knowledge on you so that you may be
transformed and have good behaviour.”

“This day means joy, which
symbolizes the success of life and the end of my journey at Dzaleka Secondary
School”, said Oswald Salumu Mwamba, from Democratic Republic Of Congo (DRC) and
DZCDSS graduate. Likewise, Claudine Hatungimana, a Rwandese girl, was very
excited to finish the long journey, made possible thanks to some help not only
from parents, also teachers. “Their hard work pushed me to reach this success!”
Hatungimana cheerfully said.

Along their academic journey, these 160 graduates were struggling
with a long list of challenges. Salumu explains: “Being a refugee is a
challenge because I depend on my own and I have to provide for my basic
needs. I don’t have electricity in my
house, I used to study during the day and have to use a small torch at night.
To overcome all these challenges I close my eyes, I forget all my problems and
focused on important things in order to achieve my goals. Education brings
light in my life. On the other hand, Claudine, however, said some other girls
dropped out of school because similar difficulties as well as pregnancies.

Even though education is a long arduous journey, it enables
many boys and girls, all over the globe, to rebuild their interrupted lives.
Most interestingly, education equips them with the maximum power and
willingness possible to “build networks across social lines, engage in creative
problem solving and act as community leaders […] for bottom-up change”. To put
it differently, education helps you to stay out of early pregnancies, tribal
and inter-religious conflicts, discrimination, and therefore maintains peace in
a multicultural setting and guarantees sustainable community development.